By Ella Davies
Reporter, BBC Nature
A unique family of birds containing just one species has been discovered by researchers.
Scientists investigating families within the Passerida group of perching birds identified 10 separate branches in their tree of life.
The analysis also revealed that the spotted wren-babbler sat on its own branch and was not related to either wrens or wren-babblers.
Experts recommend the distinctive bird should now be referred to as Elachura.
The discovery is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
"This single species is the only living representative of one of the earliest off-shoots within the largest group of [perching birds], which comprises [around] 36% of the world's 10,500 bird species," said Prof Per Alstrom from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, who undertook the study alongside researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
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